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Making Your Family Trip Memorable

After you’ve spent many months planning, researching, and finalizing the last detail of your summer itinerary, how will you know whether this trip is one that the kids will remember? Not all trips will be as memorable as you’d want, but this is certainly a reachable goal. After all, our kids will be out of the house before you know it. You can make these trips count.

I look back on our own family trips and have come up with my top 5 criteria for memorable trips:

A balance of relaxation with activity. Are your kids really going to let you lay on the beach all day for 7 days? Not! Have a hearty breakfast, take a tour of the town, make a stop for lunch and ice cream, then come back to the hotel for an afternoon dip in the pool and relaaax. Dinner at a restaurant you can walk to, frequented by the locals, might be a nice way to end the day.

A sense of adventure. Skip that organized bus tour. Go ahead and ride an elephant today and pet a baby tiger tomorrow. Never zip-lined? Yes, you can do it! Don’t worry that it’s pouring rain on a river raft tour. It’s warm and you can buy cheap, disposable ponchos.

An appreciation for the charm and pleasant hospitality of a small hotel or b&b. We don’t mind 5-star luxuries, but we have given that up for the scrumptious breakfast served by the owner who tells us, beaming with pride, about the many generations his family has owned his b&b.

The flexibility of getting around on our own. Again, skip that organized bus tour. We drive around so much in the US. Especially in Europe, taking the tram in Vienna, a ferry down the Danube, or a train through the Swiss alps is the family activity. The journey is the experience. Renting a car for a part of the trip will allow you to pull over, park, and join the crowd hurriedly walking over to their annual town fair.

An activity or tour of choice for each member of the family. In this summer’s Europe itinerary, we plan to visit a brown bear orphanage with my daughter who loves animals; a Parmesan factory tour and tasting for my boys who love good food; a model train museum for my husband who began this hobby as a small boy; and a medieval hilltop town for me because I love the vistas and the history.

Tell me about your most memorable family trip. What made it memorable?

Are you thinking about your next trip and need some help or advice? Let me help you build an itinerary your family will cherish. Contact me.